Press

Press

cover story, Carrier management magazine

Ziskin has many steadfast believers in his potential, like Charlie Ebersol, a well-known Los Angeles producer and CEO of The Company, a TV and film production company. “The people who succeed in business take what happened to them in the past and learn from it,” said Ebersol, son of Dick Ebersol, former chairman of NBC Sports. “Louis is the very definition of this evolution.”

Ebersol met Ziskin through Friel, a mutual friend. “We got together for a one-hour lunch and spent nearly five hours together; it wiped out the rest of my day,” the producer said. “Leaving aside his backstory, he just captivated me with his ideas. Plus, I’m a big believer in second chances. I had mine.”

On-demand live video startup lands primetime coverage on CNBC

L.A.-based startup DropIn, Inc. will be featured Tuesday, Aug. 2 on the CNBC reality show, West Texas Investors Club. DropIn's Chief Revenue Officer, Jen Friel, appeared on season one, and secured an investment from Rooster McConaughey and Butch Gilliam for $50,000 for 50% of her Florida Keys-based app called "What's Up The App." Friel sold the business in 2015 to local businessmen and is now working on an on-demand live streaming full-service platform called DropIn, Inc.

Entertainment tops tech at LA’s Marijuana Mansion

Twenty minutes after the invite, I had a plane ticket to Los Angeles.“Bring a costume” was the last thing she messaged me. I obliged.

The afternoon before Independence Day, I found out what the costumes were for. “Today, we’re gonna dress up and go down to Hollywood and Highland so people can take photos with us. We’ll donate the tips they give us to charity.”

There’s a whole scene of people dressed as famous characters and actors near Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, and we were going to join them for shits ’n’ giggles and see what a day in their lives was like. Jen dressed up as Katy Perry and looked remarkably like her. I put on a day-glo psychedelic mumu and a captain’s hat. Those, coupled with my beard, made me look like a combination between Mama Cass and Zach Galifianakis. For obvious reasons, no one wanted a photo with me.

JEN FRIEL EXPLODES!

Jen is a tour de force – a passionate entrepreneur, an animal lover, and a complete goofball! She founded her first company at age 8, is currently the CRO of DropIn, Inc. and is perhaps best known for sharing her zaniness through her website Talk Nerdy To Me, Lover, which has been optioned by Warner Bros. and Jerry Bruckheimer (how cool is that?!?!?!?)

What We Can Learn from These 5 Genius Personal Brands (Part I)

Jen Friel is a force to be reckoned with. She’s a fiercely passionate internet lifecaster who dedicated years of her life broadcasting every incredible life story on her blog, Talk Nerdy to Me, Lover.

Friel’s candid blog posts and relentless energy to respond to nearly every online mention garnered her a loyal internet following. A following that coalesced under the hashtag #NerdsUnite. Her popularity grew with every post like, “I Crashed the 2010 Grammy Awards to Meet @PeteCashmore.” Friel’s zest for life was intoxicating and her audience couldn’t get enough.

In a competitive situation, Talk Nerdy To Me, a multi-camera comedy from 2 Broke Girls writer-producer Morgan Murphy and former Modern Family executive producer Bill Wrubel, has landed at CBS with a pilot production commitment. Jerry Bruckheimer TV, which has been looking to expand into half-hour comedy series, is producing with Warner Bros TV, where the company is based.

Tavernier writer, Jen Friel, makes pitch on CNBC show

Tavernier writer and Internet personality makes her business pitch for on the Sept. 8 episode of "West Texas Investors Club" on CNBC.

Jen Friel tries to persuade the stars of the cable-channel series — millionaires Rooster McConaughey and Butch Gilliam, along with friend Gil Prather — to buy into her "What's Up App," a mobile-device software program.

"This tech-savvy entrepreneur turns the tables on Butch and Rooster," says an episode summary from CNBC. The show airs at 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Blogger, jet setter, dating expert, and world traveler Jen Friel returns to the show to share with us being the CRO of the on-demand live video platform, DropIn, Inc., making a return appearance on CNBC’s “West Texas Investors Club,” living on an island, more on her blog Talk Nerdy To Me, Lover being picked up by Jerry Bruckheimer and CBS, the perfect pitch, working on “Deal or No Deal,” bring WTIC’s Butch and Rooster with her on a date from “The League,” partying at the Houdini mansion and recently meeting up with Erik while dressed as Katy Perry (complete with a frosting bra). Our second segment welcomes Emmy-nominated actor Larry Thomas (aka Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi), who shares the tale of how he and Kevin met, crazy past interviews, his book Confessions of a Soup Nazi: An adventure in Cooking, how his chili won over the entire theater department at his college, the Seinfeld experience, and more.

Don't You Want To Know What This Nerdy Relationship Blogger Thinks About The Dodge Dart?

"It is eating me alive. Literally. It is killing me. Literally." I hope those are the first words of nerd/sex/techblogger Jen Friel's write up of the Dodge Dart, which she's currently in Austin reviewing on an all-expense paid trip from Chrysler, and not just the painfully hyperbolic moaning of an oversharing blogger.

How I Saw Eminem VIP at SXSW for $5

Flights and accommodation for SXSW can get expensive if you wait too long to make reservations, so I booked my flight and hotel early (and did so for free with my American Express miles). Before I landed, I posted on Facebook that I needed a ride from the airport. I got 60 responses from great fans and friends, and a band called D&D Sluggers from North Carolina offered to pick me up that night. They had a Prius full of gear and we all piled in, checking out events on the first night. I met up with my blogger friend Jen Friel (talknerdytomelover.com) who had just seen Jay-Z from the front row. She was buzzing from everything she had done and caught me up on how the Interactive week went.

Written by writer-comedian Murphy, the project is inspired by the blog Talk Nerdy to Me, Lover, edited by Jen Friel. It revolves around four smart, ambitious, twenty-something women — two computer programmers, a musician and a doctor — who share a house on the canals in Venice, CA, and support one another as they reach for their dreams professionally and personally.

How Dodge is Affirming the Power of Social Media

Now the event had a story. It had an arc, it had a villain, and it had some legs. Dodge wasn’t making noise now, their car was; their event was. All sides were in agreement that the Dodge Dart was either an awesome vehicle, or “probably not a terrible car”. Without including one of the largest websites in social media week (I’m not sure if they were invited to attend as journalists), there was still a piece written about the event on their website. It turned out that the blogger who was supposed to be the least car savvy was one of the most effective promoters of the event in the short term, even if it wasn’t a direct result of her actions. That’s the recipe for viral content, and you couldn’t have found a better Twitter protagonist than Jen Friel.

Jen FRIEL, SuperNerd

For West Hartford native Jen Friel, pay-for-play is serious business. In May 2010, the Hall High graduate donated all her belongings, left her Los Angeles apartment and lived for a year traveling around the country, bartering her social media expertise for food, shelter and a variety of interesting experiences, all chronicled on her blog: Talk Nerdy To Me, Lover. Friel now has a television show based on the blog in development with Mary Parent, who was a producer on films including Meet the Fockers, Role Models and You, Me and Dupree.

TalkNerdytoMeLover.com’s Jen Friel Shares her Stalking Experience

How to protect yourself from fake profiles

Tech guy Rich Demuro is explaining what it means to be 'Catfished' online and how you can protect yourself from fake profiles.

Rich Demuro says: "It can happen to anyone. Football player Man-tie Te`o fell victim to it, even the star of 'Criminal Minds' Thomas Gibson got fooled. So how can you tell if you`ve got the perfect catch - or just a cruel catfish?"

Jen Friel says: "I legitimately did think that there`s no way that something like this would ever happen to me. And then it did."

Video Chat Date

For as long as I could romantically recall, I’d always wanted what I couldn’t have and, given that she lived all the way across the United States, Jen Friel was no exception to this rule. However, it did make her a great candidate for a video chat date.

I wondered if wanting what you couldn’t have was an innate desire for that which was not yours, or actually the drive simply to prove oneself? I wanted to be well-known because I was raised unknown. I wanted financial security because I was raised without it. I wanted a beautiful and impressive woman in my life because I’d grown up thinking it was impossible to have one.

Jen seemed just barely attainable enough to be possible, but that still didn’t mean it was anywhere near likely.

Go Legendary (#3 of 4) Social Media Mavens Jen Friel and Jenn Hoffman of TalkNerdyToMeLover and GirlsIRL.com – The Art of Charm Podcast

One Woman’s Views on Algorithms as Foreplay

How successful has online dating been for you? Jen Friel, who blogs at Blogger of Talk Nerdy to Me Lover, says her experiment has been a combination of success and ultimate failure. I spoke with her at the TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco.

Friel’s dating experiment outgrew from another where she bartered social media to live for a year. She took $10 and traveled to 12 states from May 2010 to May 2011. During that time she wanted a social life, so she started dating and made those experiences a sub-project.

Social Media Nerds will rule the Earth!

Why Jen Friel is my latest nerd crush and a great example of social media possibilities… I have numerous nerd/geek crushes. They include Craig Ferguson and his beautiful/awesome Doctor Who love. And of course, there is the Nerdist himself, Chris Hardwick. But how in the heck did I not know about Jen Friel? Thankfully, my day job took me to #20sbsummit in Chicago this weekend. Many of the sessions were helpful, in the blogging conference way. Great people, good tips on publishing, etc. But by far, my favorite session of the event was Jen Friel’s speech-which was more a display of awesome than anything else.

Jen Friel, Sam The Eagle, TTAC’s Disinvitation To The Dodge Dart, And The Slut Event Horizon

Yesterday, Jalopnik’s Matt Hardigree teed-off on Chrysler for inviting sex blogger Jen Friel to the Dart release. Although Hardigree himself is embroiled in a long-term struggle with our own Derek Kriendler for the unofficial title of Most Interesting Young Auto Writer, a battle he cannot help but eventually lose, I heartily recommend that you check out Matt’s article when you have time, because it’s a fun read, and it’s straight out of the Jack Baruth Handbook For Dissing The Living Shit Out Of Hack Writers & The Auto Industry In General, Yo. When I read stuff like that, I feel the same way Madonna must while watching a Lady Gaga performance.

21 Female Dating Experts Reveal How to Attract Women

SUNSET ON COACHELLA, COACHELLA 2013

I made some great new friends and got to hang out with some pretty cool people. Sam Levin, Chris Voss, Jen Friel, Daniel Brusilovsky, Ron Sheridan, you guys rock! Getting to hear Greg Kihn play Beatles and Stones songs for us in the RV on the way down was a definite highlight — man that guy can sing. Greg’s also got some of the best stories you’ve ever heard about rock and roll. Great getting to know you on the trip down Greg!

THIS WEEK AT NERDIST THEATER AT MELTDOWN!

Ever wanted to know what makes your favorite creative types secretly nerdy, but were too timid to ask? Sure you did! BuzzFocus.com and The Nerdist Theatre at Meltdown Comics have come together to take that burden off your shoulders with our very own chat show-– NERDY SECRETS, hosted by Mo Fathelbab and Dominic Dierkes.

#Nerdswag: Everything In Life Should Fit

I read the first post that brought me to her site, a story about 103 #OkCupid dates in 9 months. It wasn’t a new post or anything, someone I followed on the Twitter reposted it for some reason. I clicked to read it because I was fascinated by the title of said post.

Fast forward an hour, and I haven’t stopped reading. Post after post I was consuming stories and was more entertained than my favorite episode of my favorite show. This chic was beyond cool. The why? Because she plain and simply didn’t give a flip. She went after everything her heart told her to. Fear wasn’t a word she allowed herself to hear, emotion she let her body feel, or thought she let her mind have.

Technology takes a toll on relationships

Jen Friel, creator of the blog Talk Nerdy to Me Lover, said technology dramatically changes the way relationships work.“The amount of connectivity has never been greater,” said Friel. “No longer do we have to go to the bar to meet new people, instead we can just do it online.”Friel said that even though technology brings us together in new ways, people should still make time to meet in person to establish a stronger relationship.

In Defense of Boston

One of the many websites I’ve discovered through 20-something bloggers is Talk Nerdy To Me Lover, run by the incomparable Jen Friel. This girl has fascinated me since I started reading TNTML. She’s a study in contradictions: a gorgeous girl who has built her online following around her nerdiness, a girl who is smart enough to finish high school at age sixteen but chose not to go to college, a former professional model and actress who would rather be the one running the show, a girl from a well-off Connecticut family who spent a year couch surfing and living out of her car in the name of following her website dreams. But I’m also fascinated by her willingness to be open and put herself out there. She calls herself a “lifecaster” rather than a blogger, and she does not hold anything back in telling her audience about her life. She protects certain people’s identities and doesn’t write about certain things for business or legal reasons, but other than that, her life is right there, out in the open.